Tip The Scales
by Revan4976
Summary: First fanfic, more so just an idea I ran with, so here we go. " What if Anakin fully gave in to the Darkside without Sidious there to cement his loyalty? Would he still have fallen? Or could another weigh in on the situation make a difference?" Feed back, ideas and opinions are welcome. This is a one shot for now, I'll see how I feel about it.


Anakin was running down a hall, cutting down droids as he went. His rage simmering just beneath the surface of his calm exterior. He was here to rescue Padma. She had been kidnapped and held hostage by senators of worlds that wished to secede from the republic. They were attempting to hold her hostage as a way to keep the republic from attacking and as a gift to the separatists as a show of allegiance.

The meeting was to taking place on Teth. Ever since the Hutts abandoned the world after republic and separatist forces fought there the planet had been generally left out of the war. Even some monks started to return, although not of the B'omarr Order.

Anakin had been patrolling this area when he got the call to rescue rescue senator Amidala. Now he, Ashoka, and the 501st were securing the monastery. Anakin sent ashoka and her platoon to take out the enemy vehicles and means of escape while he and Rex, rescued Padma.

The hallway led to a large domed room. Seeing a door with about fifty droids guarding it he assumed this was where Padma was. He looked over to Rex.

"You and the men secure this room and scrap these droid, I'm going in to rescue Padma."

Rex was barely able to acknowledge him before Anakin jumped from behind there cover into the middle of the droids, slashing two in half as he landed. Another leap had him at the door and through it before the droids could even fire.

With his General through the door and the droids turned the opposite direction. Rex lanched his attack hoping to secure the room quickly and move in to help his general.

As soon as Anakin was through the doors he stopped in his tracks. Eyes wide as he took in the room. There were about eleven men in the room. Some looked to be the military leaders of there world, while others were dressed as senators. They were scattered randomly throughout the room some seated at tables, others standing in front of there chairs. Anakin looked to the back of the room and saw Padma. There was a senator next to her with a blaster pointed at her head, but that's not what held his attention. It was Padmas condition, she was chained to the wall, she had a black eye, her lips were swollen and bleeding as if she was punched repeatedly, and she was unconscious, being held up by the senator with his blaster to her head.

"Drop your weapon Jedi or the senator Amidala dies."

To emphasize his point he pressed the barrel to her head. A smug smile on his face as he did.

Anakin didn't even hear him. All he heard was the beating of his heart in his ears as his eyes remained locked on Padmas unconscious body. His rage at what they'd done building in the force. An inferno, far greater then any he'd ever felt. He shut off his lightsaber and everyone in the room seemed to relax. Some looking back at the lead senator, who had a look of triumph on his face. He had began to speak again, but whatever he was about to say died in his thought, when he looked into Anakins eyes. Then his body froze. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't move an inch. Then he felt his hand slowly move from pointing the blaster at Padme. The senator was forced to look into Skywalkers eyes as without even lifting a finger, he used the force to turn the blaster from her head to his. The others in the room looked on in confusion as he did this, but he couldn't speak, as the mussel of the blaster met his temple. All he could do is look into Anakins bright yellow eyes as he felt his own finger slowly pull the trigger.

Anakin felt like he had fire coursing through his veins. He felt his rage soar, but not like with his mother's death. This time he was focused, controlled, his anger was not just a release of his emotion, it had a purpose, a direction, and as if the blaster shot had been nothing more then a staring shot of a race. He began to direct his anger toward saving his wife.

The senators looked on in confusion and then in shock as their leader slowly pointed the blaster at himself and blew his head off. They all jumped back at the shot and then turned quickly to face the jedi. Only to see he was no longer there. They were instead greeted by the sound of a sickening crunch from the far side of the room. As they all turned to see one of their allies pressed against the wall by Anakin. With one hand he crushed the ribcage over the senators heart, killing him instantly. One man scream in fear and started firing his blaster at the jedi and the other shortly followed suit.

Anakin ignited his lightsaber deflecting the shots as he darted around the room. With every swing of his blade he took heads, arms, and cut torso in half as he sped through the room. When there was only three of them left, a senator tried to shoot Padme, but Anakin felt his intent and was in front of him before he could even point his blaster. Piercing him through the heart. Another tried to shoot Anakin in the back, but sensing this he moved the pierced mans body in the way, blocking the shots, but while he was blocking he couldn't see the last senator pull a larger blaster rifle from under the table. Before Anakin could reacted he shot a pulse of electricity at him , so strong it blew the body shielding him to wet chunks and knocked him onto the floor. His lightsaber skidded out of his hand and he was barely able to get up before the next shot came. He held up his metal hand trying to deflect it with the force, but could only lessen the blow as electricity fried his hand and sent seiring pain throughout his entire combined with the laughter of the two senators at their power over the jedi, only stoked the flames of his rage even higher. He stretched out his human hand and with a hateful roaring sent a burst of force energy toward the two, but instead of the push he'd intented. Tendrils of white force lightning sprang from his hand. Frying the two senators where they stood. The lightning was so intense that it redused the two senators to smoldering husks before they even hit the ground.

Exhausted from the force lightning Anakin dropped to the floor breathing heavily and with all the senators dead his eyes reverted back to their natural blue color. Afew seconds later Rex and the other clones burst in through the door. Rex took in the room, seeing no threats he told three clone medics to secure senator Amidala and run over to his general.

"Sir, we've secured the the monastery and Senator Amidala. Are you ok, Sir?"

"I'm fine Rex, just hurry and get Padme to the med bay."  
Anakin said, getting his breath under control.

Calling his lightsaber to his hand he got up and looked around the room at the bodies on the ground. Instead of satisfaction or peace of mind he wanted to feel. He felt his anger begin to raise and the darkside begin to pull at him. He look at Rex.

"Search the room and the rest of the monastery for useable Intel. When Ashokas done with her mission, have her help you. After you're done, come find me."

Again Rex was barely able to give a response before Anakin was walking out the door. Rex looked at the room closely, knowing full well why his Commander wanted to leave so soon. The way these men were killed, spoke to his Generals anger. He'd police up Ashoka and make sure he had space to cool off. After that he'd try and talk to him about it, but for now there was work to do.

Anakin rushed down the hallways of the monastery trying to hold in his rage and shame at what he'd done. Jedi weren't supposed to do such things, but those men deserved everything they got. So why was he conflicted about what he'd done?

Those two thoughts and many more like them fought back and forth in his head as he walked. Wrestling with his thoughts, his frustration at himself growing to much for him to hold back. Just now noticing he had left the monastery acouple streets back. He ducked into a small building he'd been passing and with a frustrated grunt, force crushed a metal crate.

He stood there for a moment trying to calm himself. When he noticed a monk looking up at him. The look on his face reminded him of the way the jedi council looked at him. A look of knowing disappointed, as if he failed to meet their expectations. He hated that look, and turned toward the old man, his rage building up again. The old man started to walk toward him.

Anakin narrowed his eyes at the monk.

"I don't need any of your words of wisdom right now monk."

The man continued to approach, pulling at a chain around his neck. Anakin balled his fist, it was growing harder to keep the rage at bay. If the old man didn't mind his own business, he was gonna end up in the hospital.

"Listen, I don't want your prayers, I don't need your advice, and all I need you to do is leave...

He abandoned the rest of his rant. When he saw what was on the chain the monk was wearing. A silver wedding ring.

Anakin thought to himself. 'Monks aren't supposed to have wives.' Looking up at his face Anakins rage died seeing the sadness and understanding on his face.

"Then how about a story?" The old monk said.

"I know abit about rage and pain, and have learned the hard way where they lead. I'm not trying to sell you on anything, I just hope my story can help put yours into perspective."

Anger forgotten, Anakin lowered his head and shook it.  
"I'm sorry, I just..."

Anakin stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. The old man smiled and look at him, gesturing for him to sit. They both sat on near by boxes. Anakin looked at the old monk as he pulled the necklace from around his neck and looked at the ring. He stretched out with the force and felt the mans pain, his anger, his love, but at the center of it all was balance and peace. A peace that he never felt before. Not even from the jedi masters. Their peace came from separation, his was different and this intrigued Anakin. Who waited patiently for the old man to speak.

"I was once a police officer on Coruscant." The old man began.

"I lived there with my wife, we were married for ten years." Anakin felt the love in the old man as he spoke about his wife and relaxed abit more seeing a connection between himself and the old monk.

"As you know gangs are always popping up in coresuants under ground. My unit was assigned to put away any upstart gangs as to keep the population down. One day we were arresting a group of guys apart of a new gang called the rancors. I was arresting two of them when one ripped off my mask. The other got my picture and ran and I could only arrest the one I had.

Anakin looked at him knowingly, the Coruscant police wore masks on duty to keep there families safe from the many criminals around the planet and having a gang know who your are can only end one way.

"After we took the once we caught into the station, I rushed home to get my wife. We'd have to move to a new planet now that my face was known..."

The monk paused, and Anakin felt his sadness grow.

"I was only gone for two hours... only took two hours to get home, but when I got there she was dead... they stuck a vibroblade in here chest with a note on it. It just said, [You're next]."

Anakin felt his anger raise again. The mere thought of something like that happening to him made his blood boild, but what through him was the monk beside him. He felt the monks anger raise to rival his own. Pure hatred radiated off of him like heat from a fire.

"I took the blade from my wife's chest and closed her eyes. I've never felt more angry in my whole lift, it was a rage that consumed me completely. All I wanted was revenge. I went back into the underground and found there hideout. I snuck in and found all their surviving members in a room. There were only three. I had began to just call for backup and have them arrested, let them rot in prison. Intil I saw one with my wife's ring. After that, I lost it. I shot the first two and used the vibro blade they left in my wife on the last. But even as I stabbed my blade into his heart and watched the light leave his eyes. It didn't stop the pain or my anger. After that I left Coruscant, I wondered the galaxy for a while. Picking up small bounties and doing odd jobs to live. "

"In that time I saw alot of things. Suffering. Joy, hate, and love. I started to wonder was there a point to all this."

He looked at Anakin.

"Does the force really have a will for life?"

Although Anakin had been told that it did. He wasn't so sure about it to be honest.

"To find that answer I became a monk. I meditated on that question for years, as I traveled through the galaxy."

"One day while I was on Aldraan I saw a forest fire outside my window. I wondered why the force would give birth to such beautiful plant life only to allow it to die like that. Thinking about my life and how it also burnt down around me. I felt like this was my chance to figured out the answer to my questions. So I packed up and set out for the forest."

" I walked through the forest and saw that all nature was in balance. Everything supporting the other perfectly, the plants supporting the animals and in death the animals support the plants. Everything has a place, so why destruction? What place did it have, or did it even have one?"

"When I reached where the fire had burnt the land, I resolved to stay there until I found the answers I sought. I spent days there, meditating on the reasons behind the chaos, destruction, and death that exist in the galaxy."

Still stretching out with the force. Anakin felt that peace and balance the old monk had.

'The force flowed through him freely dark and light, but they weren't in conflict. They seemed to flow and swirl around eachother, working in consort toward... what?'

Anakin looked up at the old monk who had stopped talking for a moment. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts before speaking again.

" As I watched the forest retake the burned area, I came to realize that my tthoughts on what balance really was, were incorrect."

He turned slightly, so he could look at Anakin.

"We view balance as have light on one side and dark on the other. We except dark as part of the whole, and yet we actively fight against it. Thinking that if we exist in the light and help eachother it will keep the dark at bay. That true balance is light within our lives and dark outside. Lurking and waiting to destroy us, but if we stay in the light, we will be safe.."

"Hmph", the old man snorted

"Ridiculous, at best we are living in denial of what life real is and at worst we live in fear. What I learned from watching the forest retake the burnt land is that true life has both light and dark, both balance of the individual. Not just your will, but your entire being."

"Look", he said, pointing out the open doorway to the jungle off in the distance.

"Trees that provide shelter for the birds and bugs of the jungle. Do you think they do that as a service?"

Honestly, Anakin never thought about it. The jedi teach that nature is always in balance with the force, but they didn't go in depth on how.

The monk continued, " No, every plant and animal in that jungle is working toward their own survival. It is not their will to help eachother, it is just what they are. Do you understand?"

The old monk stared at Anakin intensely. As if trying to convey something that was to difficult to put into words.

Anakin honestly didn't understand how selfishly achieving one goals would give balance. It sounded sith to him, and he was about to tell the man so, when he felt the force pull at him. The pull originated from the monk, but soon spread out all around them. Through the building, the ground, the trees, and the animals of the jungle.

The more he focus on it the stronger the pull got. Until Anakin found himself doing something he rarely did. Standing up from his seat, he stepped in front of the monk and sat on the ground. Closing his eyes he began to meditate on what the monk had said.

Seeing the young jedi's willingness to understand he started to explain in more detail, hoping to guide him to the answer.

"Light and dark flow through everything." The old man began, and in response Anakin opened himself up to the force in its entirety. Both light and dark.

"Light is growth and dark is destruction. Most try to align themselves with one or the other, out of a need for stability. The need to align with something more than ones perceived self."

As Anakin listened to his words he saw in his mind visions of people. Some giving to eachother, helping one another and then others stealing, killing and subjugating others.

"To align yourself in this way is a perversion of what life is actually supposed to be. Not aligned with either dark or light, but instead letting them align with you. You are the driving force behind your life. The force works through you, and you through the force, all three components are necessary for a being to reaching there full potential. The dark, the light, and you."

The next thing Anakin new he was sitting in a space, void and empty. Then the light and darksides of the force rushed into him. Both swirling around him and through him. He felt both of them call out to him.

Seeing the indecisive look on his face, the monk calmly spoke. " Who are you Jedi. A tool of the force?"

Hearing this Anakin began to focus on himself and not the force. Who was he, a slave, a Jedi, a general, a master, the chosen one? All of these things were titles given to him, but who was he really. Who is Anakin Skywalker?

The old man smiled seeing the indecisive look turn to one of introspection. He sat back on the box, bracing himself with his hands. He looked up and said, " We all want to feel like we're apart of something grand and important, so we wade out into the world to find something to be apart of. Not realizing that we are the something important. We reach out, trying to control life, to make it move to our tune." Chuckling, he looked back down at Anakin.

"We over look the fact that we don't even know our own tune. We are acting as proxies to forces, bigger than ourselves." He says the last part with air quotations.

"So who am I?" The question was out of his mouth before he realized he'd spoken out loud.

Now the old man had a wide smile on his face." You tell me, look within. Let go of who you thought you were and why it's important to be that and search for who you are with the needs of the world stripped away "

Anakin did as instructed by his impromptu master and with great effort on his part, slowly began to let the expectations on his life slip away. He let them go one by one. The chosen one, the jedi knight, the master, the apprentice, the friend, the husband, the son, he let them all go until he was left with just himself. For the first time he felt himself in the force with all the insecurities ripped away, along with the expectations and the labels. All that was left was himself. Both sides of the force seemed to dance through and around him, moving to his tune, as all three of them were now creating and molding the path forward. Darkness, breaking things down to base elements allowing light to reconstruct them into new creations. Both of these things interlacing through Anakin as he makes his way through life. Whether its within the cells of his body or the planets that orbit the stars, to the political and social ideals of sentient beings. Everything and everyone is built on these principles.

The old man let out a barking laugh seeing the look of awe on Anakins face. The monk leaned forward expectantly and asked."So, who are you?"

Committing the feeling of his true self to memory as to not ever lose the feeling he had. Anakin spoke slowly, trying to properly articulate what he felt. "I am... " Anakin was struggling to find a word to use next when the old monk slapped his hand on his leg. Causing Anakin to open his eyes and look at him." EXACTLY", the monk said, with an ecstatic look on his face.

Anakin was confused for only a second before he understood. The realization made Anakin laugh and the monk joined in.

On Coruscant, both Sidious and Yoda were meditating. Sidious concentrating on the future, seeing Anakin at his side, ruling the galaxy. While Yoda was trying to perceive the darkness that clouded his vision.

Suddenly they both felt a change in the force. A ripple that tore Sidious out of his vision. He found himself standing in a vast starry expanse.

Yoda felt the darkness veil ripped off of his perception. He too was now standing in the ocean of stars that looked like deep space.

Then all at once the form of Anakin burst from the darkness. His form was as bright as a star, but his eyes were dark and peppered with stars. He looked at them both, before he raised a hand and with a bright flash. Sent both of them back to their physical bodies.

Sidiious stumbled back, legs hitting his desk as he tried to catch his breath. Fear slowly beginning to take hold of him.

Yoda rocked back on his meditation pad, before falling forward, bracing his had on the floor. Confused as to what the future may hold.


End file.
